


The Witness

by willow_larkspur



Series: Fantasy February [23]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Canon-Typical Violence, Desi Harry Potter, Female Harry Potter, Gen, Guide Harry Potter, Harry Potter Needs a Hug, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Starvation, Implied/Referenced Torture, Unlawful Child Custody Change, sentinel bucky barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 20:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willow_larkspur/pseuds/willow_larkspur
Summary: The Asset didn't understand what it was about the little girl trying to hire him that was driving him against the compliance that Hydra required.
Relationships: Harry Potter & The Dursleys, James "Bucky" Barnes & Harry Potter, The Winter Soldier & Hydra
Series: Fantasy February [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2141499
Comments: 2
Kudos: 59
Collections: Anxiety’s favorite oneshots, MC4A Year 3





	The Witness

**Author's Note:**

> Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I’m just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn’t going to get you anything but tears.  
> Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. There is also direct references to child abuse & starvation and a child wishing for death. Feel free to back out if need be.  
> Author’s Note: It’s fairly light in this fic, but worth noting that while neither Bucky nor Harini are aware of the words (which is why they don’t use them), they are a Sentinel and a Guide, respectfully. Hence why I am once again including that quick & dirty explanation of the AU Trope. It should be obvious, but I’m gonna say it anyway: this fic is not a part of my Leap verse.
> 
> AU Trope Specifics (Quick & Dirty): Sentinels have enhanced physical senses & physical abilities (strength/dexterity kind of thing). Guides have enhanced metaphysical senses like empathy & telepathy. Sensitive is a collective term for both Sentinels & Guides, with Sensitivity being a collective term for both sets of enhancements. Most Sensitives do not have their abilities become active until adulthood, unless something traumatic forces the activation as a survival instinct. The Center for Sensitive Services is an organization dedicated to fulfilling the needs of Sensitives, including things like training and seeing to their unique medical needs. Spirit animals are metaphysical guardians & companions of Sensitives and are only visible to Sensitives. Sensitives are territorially protective over what they view as their Tribe, which often leads them to drift naturally into social groups similar to wolves or large cats. A pack is a family group including at least one Sensitive; a pride is a much larger group and often occurs when there's several Sensitives within the same workplace. Blessed Protector is when a Sensitive (most commonly a Sentinel) goes deep into their instincts where all they can focus on is protecting someone/something.

(^^)  
 **The Witness**  
(^^)

The Asset noted the child watching only after he had disposed of his target. She had been hidden in the shadows between the shelves. Between her dark brown skin and the dull colors of her dress, the girl blended into the patch of darkness, and even taking a deep breath through his nose wasn’t enough to scent anything other than the musky odor of the books around them. Her green eyes practically glowed as a stray beam of sunlight fell across them. It was beautiful in a way that the Asset did not experience often.

The Asset gently lowered his target to lay across the study table he had been sitting at when the Asset had had fulfilled his mission. The little girl just kept watching him. She seemed only mildly curious, no hint of fear or worry on her gaunt face. He noted that there were multiple bruises on her small arms as well as swelling on one of her cheeks which would probably become another one.

Nothing in his current mission parameters required the elimination of witnesses, despite the public location chosen. The parameters only mentioned not allowing himself to be witnessed eliminating the target. Not meeting that parameter was a failure on the part of the Asset, not directly the fault of the child.

Who was still watching him with those unnatural green eyes and an unwavering gaze.

He approached her slowly, cautiously,  _ warily _ . She had appeared small from his former position beside the table, but as he came closer, he reassessed just slightly. The girl was tiny, despite how he could now tell that she was not as young as her size would lead observers to assume. He would say she was around nine, but that would make her being the size of a four-year-old criminal.

Something within him stirred with protective outrage.

“Are you an assassin?” the girl asked, her voice as expressionless as her face. The Asset sniffed the air again and just like before was unable to smell anything beyond the expected scents of the old books around them. He could feel his senses straining at the control he rigorously kept over them. The girl’s heart was off, too fast and skipping occasionally. “Can I hire you? I don’t have much money, only what I’ve nicked from when Aunt Petunia sent me to do the shopping.”

She pulled a handful of crumbled notes and a few coins out of the pocket of her dress. Then she offered it to him. He sank to his knees in front of her small form as she dropped her gaze to the ground between them. Her breathing rattled around the edges, probably undetectable to people without his enhanced hearing. The sound was familiar in that odd way that things sometimes were, like he had heard it before and had lost the memory to the Chair. 

“I normally use it to buy a meat pie or some mushy peas to eat before heading back to the Dursleys,” she said, dauntless even in the face of his continued silence. “I know it’s wrong, but it makes the voices quiet down. Aunt Petunia doesn’t like it when I’m distracted from my chores. True, she’s not going to like what I’m about to ask you to do, but…” 

She trailed off, focusing back on him. He felt his own heart stutter as that damnable protectiveness swirled around him again. The girl’s eyes were emerald pools that the Asset was sinking into and he would drown soon. He welcomed the oncoming oblivion as respite against the hell that was the endless cycle of the Chair, compliance, and then the cold dreamless sleep. Death would be a release.

“Will you, please?” the girl asked, calling his attention back to her plea. She jutted her hand out farther, as if trying to cajole him into taking the pittance that was probably a fortune to her. Her other hand stretched towards him as if she was going to touch the fingertips to his cheek. “I know it’s not much, but it’s all I have.”

“Who?” the Asset asked, unable to stand the tears glittering in her eyes any longer. He was the Fist of Hydra, their perfect weapon to aim at their enemies. He could afford the divergence from mission parameters to take an outside job. Some part of him rumbled approvingly at the thought of doing anything the girl wanted, if only for the chance to soothe the despair in her eyes.

The girl took a deep rattling breath before touching her chest. The Asset stared blankly at the gesture, unable to compute it. His voice is flat when he finally mustered the ability to reply.

“Nyet.”

“Please,” she begged. Her fingers were touching his chest now. Something tingled through him from the point of contact. It was similar to the current that ripped through him from the Chair but gentler. It moved through him like the cold did but warmed him instead freezing. “Please, sir. I’m just so tired and it’s so loud all of the time. I just want to rest.”

“Nyet,” the Asset repeated. He still couldn’t smell her, and through the shirt over his uniform, he can only barely feel the pressure of her fingers. There was no heat coming off of her small body. The only thing to confirm that he was not speaking with something as ghost like as himself was her odd heartbeat and the whisper of her breath. 

And it was all  _ wrong _ . No child should ask for this. No child should be used so thin as to nearly to the point of decommissioning. Assets get replaced when they were worn this much. They were replaced, but they were not children. They certainly weren’t children who welcomed death like it was already an old friend. The Asset could not be sure, because the Chair made everything muddled, but something told him that killing children had never been a part of any mission parameters.

“Nyet.”

He couldn’t do it. The protective instinct from before surged again. He could not kill the girl. He could not leave her here. Not only would that condemn her just as much as killing her himself, she had seen him killing his target. She was a witness.

At the same time, he knew better than to take her back to his handlers. If he took her back to them, she might be killed. Or worse. They might decide to make her an Asset. They might put her in the Chair and take away her memories. They might put her in the cold sleep.

“Nyet.”

The answer was clear, even if it meant that he was breaking mission parameters. The girl could not be allowed to remain in her current conditions. The girl could not remove herself from her current conditions. The Asset could not take the girl back to his current handlers.

As carefully as he would pick up explosives, he pulled the girl to him and stood up. Then he began to march towards the door of the Little Whinging Public Library. The girl clung to him as they moved, not fighting to get free. Even with her head tucked beneath his chin, he can only smell the faintest whiff of laundry soup and lemon disinfectant. She didn’t weigh anything substantial either. The door opened automatically once they reached it.

Instead of turning right towards the place where he was supposed to rendezvous with his handlers, the Asset turned left with his precious burden. Together, they disappeared into the unknown.

**Author's Note:**

> Submitting Info:  
> Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 14); MC4A  
> Individual Challenges: Magical MC; Metahuman MC; Claimed; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion; Tiny Terror; Gender Bender; Hold the Mayo; Zed Era; Old Shoes; Marvelous Cinema; Sentinel; Short Jog; Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon  
> House: Slytherin  
> Assignment No.: Term 14 – Assignment 04  
> Subject (Task No.): Meteorology (Task#1: Write about someone feeling or acting out of control.)  
> Other Hogwarts Challenges: Fantastic Beasts [116](A kidnapping); 365 Prompts [283](Hurt/Comfort); Scavenger Hunt [18](Hurt/Comfort); Winter: Days of the Year [Mar 3rd](caring for someone in need of dire help); But Can You Spell It? [T](True); Stop! Hamper Time (Cakes)[Mixed Fruit Cake](Cajole); Fantasy February (23)[Assassin Hired by Child];   
> Other MC4A Challenges: Fire [Hard](Who's Your Family); Chim [Karma](Gender Bend; "Your Arms Feel Like Home" by 3 Doors Down; Copper); Hangman [06](n/a);   
> Representation(s): Desi & Fem Harry Potter; Bucky Barnes  
> Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Fruit Fly; Second Verse (Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Found Family; Nontraditional; Middle Name; Unwanted Advice; Rock of Ages; Bad Beans; Under the Bridge; Where Angels Fear); Chorus (Wabi Sabi; Bee Haven; Fizzy Lemonade; Mouth of Babes; Tomorrow’s Shade; A Long Dog; Eternal Boredom; Abandoned Ship; Getting On; Hot Stuff)  
> Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: SHoE(Onus); FIN(Ensanguine)  
> Word Count: 1259 words


End file.
